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http://growingbolder.com/media/sports/motorsports/hershel-mcgriff-433784.html
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Northwest LCP Get Together Planed
The NW Contingent La Carrera Panamericana
Please join us at Mick Kelly’s Full Throttle Pub in Renton to enjoy an afternoon of bench racing and viewing the GT Racer episode IV – 2008 La Carrera Panamericana
produced by Alexander Davidis.
Date: Sunday - September 27, 2009
A Time: 3pm
Showtime: 5pm
CH time: TBD…,
Appetizers: 3pm to 5pm.
Location: Mick Kelly’s Full Throttle Pub
Address: 3701 East Valley Road
Renton, WA 98055
425-226-4320
La Carrera veterans will be on hand. A table with La Carrera memorabilia will be set up and voting ballots will be available to designate your ‘most favorite race car’ and the ‘team most likely to succeed’ in La Carrera Panamericana. Fun prizes will be awarded to the winners. Mick Kelly’s Irish Pub at Full Throttle has two large screens that will be showing the GT Racer documentary. In the interim, other racing videos and an extensive photographic collection of La Carrera 2007 and 2008 race cars will be part of the venue. This restaurant’s balcony looks out over Bob Lamphere’s Renton Motorcycles showroom floor. From the inner sanctuary, as you sit on authent c Harley bike seats, you can view the motorcycle shop and all its accoutrements. In the expansive parking lot you will find the La Carrera race cars along with a new 40,000 sq ft building which houses the Renton Harley Davidson dealership!
What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon? As the afternoon turns to evening, the
restaurant has an extensive menu available should you wish to order dinner.
Hope to see you there!
Please send RSVP’s with the number of attendees to mjb@roadrallyrhythms.com
For reminders and last minute updates, refer to http://RoadRallyRhythms.com\
Please join us at Mick Kelly’s Full Throttle Pub in Renton to enjoy an afternoon of bench racing and viewing the GT Racer episode IV – 2008 La Carrera Panamericana
produced by Alexander Davidis.
Date: Sunday - September 27, 2009
A Time: 3pm
Showtime: 5pm
CH time: TBD…,
Appetizers: 3pm to 5pm.
Location: Mick Kelly’s Full Throttle Pub
Address: 3701 East Valley Road
Renton, WA 98055
425-226-4320
La Carrera veterans will be on hand. A table with La Carrera memorabilia will be set up and voting ballots will be available to designate your ‘most favorite race car’ and the ‘team most likely to succeed’ in La Carrera Panamericana. Fun prizes will be awarded to the winners. Mick Kelly’s Irish Pub at Full Throttle has two large screens that will be showing the GT Racer documentary. In the interim, other racing videos and an extensive photographic collection of La Carrera 2007 and 2008 race cars will be part of the venue. This restaurant’s balcony looks out over Bob Lamphere’s Renton Motorcycles showroom floor. From the inner sanctuary, as you sit on authent c Harley bike seats, you can view the motorcycle shop and all its accoutrements. In the expansive parking lot you will find the La Carrera race cars along with a new 40,000 sq ft building which houses the Renton Harley Davidson dealership!
What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon? As the afternoon turns to evening, the
restaurant has an extensive menu available should you wish to order dinner.
Hope to see you there!
Please send RSVP’s with the number of attendees to mjb@roadrallyrhythms.com
For reminders and last minute updates, refer to http://RoadRallyRhythms.com\
Thursday, September 10, 2009
LCP DÉJA VUE?
As I watched this video I couldn't help but see a resemblance with La Carrera Panamericana. As a matter of fact it you didn't know the difference you might just think it was La Carerra Panamericana. With the old cars, police escorts, hundreds of thousands of spectators, breathtaking scenery, beautiful architecture, the only thing missing was SPEED but it's quite an amazing event none the less.
Not to be confused with Rally 1000 Miglia, the Mille Miglia (Thousand Miles) was an open-road endurance race which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957 (thirteen before the war, eleven from 1947). Like the older Targa Florio and later the Carrera Panamericana, the MM made Gran Turismo (Grand Touring) sports cars like Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Maserati and Porsche famous.
The race was banned after the fatal crash of a 4.2-lire Ferrari in 1957 that took the lives of the Spanish driver Alfonso, Marquis of Portago, his co-driver/navigator Edmund Nelson, and thirteen spectators. The crash was probably caused by a blown tire. The manufacturer was blamed and sued for this, as was the Ferrari team, which, in order to save time, had not changed tires. From 1958 to 1961, the event resumed as a Rallying-like round trip at legal speeds with a few special stages driven at full speed, but this was discontinued also. Since 1977, the name was revived as the Mille Miglia Storica, a parade for pre-1957 cars that takes several days, which also spawned the 2007 documentary film Mille Miglia - The Spirit of a Legend.
As you can see LCP and MM have a lot in common but to a true racer we all know LCP has found it's true place in history as the TRUE spirit of a legend. If someone told me they saw Edwardo Leon on a plane headed to Italy I would begin to get very excited.
Not to be confused with Rally 1000 Miglia, the Mille Miglia (Thousand Miles) was an open-road endurance race which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957 (thirteen before the war, eleven from 1947). Like the older Targa Florio and later the Carrera Panamericana, the MM made Gran Turismo (Grand Touring) sports cars like Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Maserati and Porsche famous.
The race was banned after the fatal crash of a 4.2-lire Ferrari in 1957 that took the lives of the Spanish driver Alfonso, Marquis of Portago, his co-driver/navigator Edmund Nelson, and thirteen spectators. The crash was probably caused by a blown tire. The manufacturer was blamed and sued for this, as was the Ferrari team, which, in order to save time, had not changed tires. From 1958 to 1961, the event resumed as a Rallying-like round trip at legal speeds with a few special stages driven at full speed, but this was discontinued also. Since 1977, the name was revived as the Mille Miglia Storica, a parade for pre-1957 cars that takes several days, which also spawned the 2007 documentary film Mille Miglia - The Spirit of a Legend.
As you can see LCP and MM have a lot in common but to a true racer we all know LCP has found it's true place in history as the TRUE spirit of a legend. If someone told me they saw Edwardo Leon on a plane headed to Italy I would begin to get very excited.
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
One Man's Loss... Another's Gain
And I mean this with the utmost respect but sometimes one man's destiny can have either an adverse or a positive effect on another man's destiny. So with that in mind read along as I explain myself....
Without a doubt the most exciting recollections I have of the entire 2007 La Carerra Panamericana was the day Jon and I won what is and always has been the undisputed most dangerous stage of the entire race... Mil Cumbres. Not only did we win that stage but even after being told by veterans that because it was so challenging and dangerous we should not expect to pass any cars unless they crashed. But not only did we dominate that stage of the race but in fact we passed two very fast cars.
It was while coming into a very fast corner that Lucky's tail end swung out as far as it could go and removed one of those white cement bumpers that line much of Mexico's highways. To our left was a cliff with no guard rail and thousands of feet down and to our right was a solid rock wall. Due to the angle we were sliding and the speed it was obvious that if I lifted we would have most certainly bounced off the rock wall and gone over the cliff.
Lucky's Mil Cumbre battle scar worn with honor
Jon hung on and I stepped on the loud pedal as hard as I could. A soon as the tail end began to come back to me we heard the WHAM as Lucky's right rear quarter slammed the cement marker but in a split second the horsepower really paid off as the car straightened out. Without skipping a beat Jon says, "Nice save. Ok, Right 1." I'm here to tell you THAT was exciting!
As if it were only yesterday I remember every detail of that adrenaline rush stage and all that took place. With that in mind you can only imagine how excited I was tonight when I stumbled upon a friend's site which I have never before, seen only to find a photo he had taken of Jon and I in Lucky passing a Studebaker from a much faster class right in the middle of Mil Cumbre! What a treasure this is for us and had it not been for Terry's misfortune more than likely they would not have had time to shoot this awesome shot. HOW DAMN COOL IS THAT!!!
CLICK HERE and enjoy a fantastic site about Terry Sayther's #401 BMW that has to be the most beautiful car that I have personally seen running in LCP. WARNING... There is a LOT to see and read including some great photos and videos about Terry's adventures during three years of LCP in this car but sadly it suffered a terrible crash during 2007. I was so focused and busy with the entire race and even though I was around this car both before and after it's wreck I never knew one of my friends, Bill Arnold, was the co-piloto until I returned back to California. The sad remains were parked next to us at a service stop that evening and once again served those skeptics with a reminder by proving LCP is indeed a race and NOT just another rally.
Before
After
Without a doubt the most exciting recollections I have of the entire 2007 La Carerra Panamericana was the day Jon and I won what is and always has been the undisputed most dangerous stage of the entire race... Mil Cumbres. Not only did we win that stage but even after being told by veterans that because it was so challenging and dangerous we should not expect to pass any cars unless they crashed. But not only did we dominate that stage of the race but in fact we passed two very fast cars.
It was while coming into a very fast corner that Lucky's tail end swung out as far as it could go and removed one of those white cement bumpers that line much of Mexico's highways. To our left was a cliff with no guard rail and thousands of feet down and to our right was a solid rock wall. Due to the angle we were sliding and the speed it was obvious that if I lifted we would have most certainly bounced off the rock wall and gone over the cliff.
Lucky's Mil Cumbre battle scar worn with honor
Jon hung on and I stepped on the loud pedal as hard as I could. A soon as the tail end began to come back to me we heard the WHAM as Lucky's right rear quarter slammed the cement marker but in a split second the horsepower really paid off as the car straightened out. Without skipping a beat Jon says, "Nice save. Ok, Right 1." I'm here to tell you THAT was exciting!
As if it were only yesterday I remember every detail of that adrenaline rush stage and all that took place. With that in mind you can only imagine how excited I was tonight when I stumbled upon a friend's site which I have never before, seen only to find a photo he had taken of Jon and I in Lucky passing a Studebaker from a much faster class right in the middle of Mil Cumbre! What a treasure this is for us and had it not been for Terry's misfortune more than likely they would not have had time to shoot this awesome shot. HOW DAMN COOL IS THAT!!!
CLICK HERE and enjoy a fantastic site about Terry Sayther's #401 BMW that has to be the most beautiful car that I have personally seen running in LCP. WARNING... There is a LOT to see and read including some great photos and videos about Terry's adventures during three years of LCP in this car but sadly it suffered a terrible crash during 2007. I was so focused and busy with the entire race and even though I was around this car both before and after it's wreck I never knew one of my friends, Bill Arnold, was the co-piloto until I returned back to California. The sad remains were parked next to us at a service stop that evening and once again served those skeptics with a reminder by proving LCP is indeed a race and NOT just another rally.
Before
After
Navigating LCP Difficult? Oh Hell No... Nothing To It.
Everything that you ever wanted to know and more and it's ALL RIGHT HERE
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
You Know What They Say About Old Soilders...
When General Douglas MacArthur made his famous quote, "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away." he very easily could have been talking about old race cars as well. Not all race cars are fortunate enough to withstand the beating or consequences dealt them while racing long enough to think about retirement but for those few lucky enough to endure nothing can make me happier than to see them in some sort of arena for others to enjoy.
One such arena is none other than the NATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE AND TRUCK MUSEUM OF THE UNITED STATES (NATMUS) which is located in Auburn Indiana. NATMUS is a non-profit museum with emphasis on post World War II cars and trucks but with vehicles on display from 1908 “high wheelers” to current production pick ups. Also you will find inside the doors of NATMUS a Model Car / Truck & Toy Museum (NATMATMUS).
Currently on display they have three wonderful cars that have competed in La Carrera Panamericana. There site says, "The three original La Carrera vehicles on display are believed to be the most currently on display in a single place in America." They may be right since the big display at Petersons Museum was only there for a short time.
Car #120, a 1954 Mercury Monterey, driven by Piloto Peter Frank and Co-Piloto Mark Williams ran three different LCP races (91, 91, 97) and won overall in 1992. It's interesting to point out Mark Williams is one of the most sought after co-drivers in North America. CLICK HERE FOR RESUME.
Built to compete in Turismo Mayor Class, beneath the stock bodywork you will find everything found in a NASCAR Nextel Cup car. During it's last race in 1997 the blueprinted 351 blew up during the race and was replaced with a 302 in a parking lot to finich the race. This car was donated to NATMUS by owner Dr Peter Frank of Bluffton, SC.
Seen here with 1992 overall trophy.
Car #313, a 1954 Ford, driven by Piloto Argentine team mate Americo Guzzini and Co-Piloto Bernardo Guzzini finished 77th overall in the 1954 LCP. Some interesting trivia was that because Argentineans led the roster with 74 cars compared to 47 Mexicans, 39 Americans, 9 Italians and 4 Germans. The number of Argentines was so high because President Juan Peron granted a special permit which exempted participants from paying standard import duties, so it was possible to import a large American car at a much lower cost if it had taken part in La Carrera Panamericana. Coincidentally the name PERON was painted on all of the Argentine cars to pay tribute to Eva Peron, the wife of the Argentine dictator who had recently died. According to the original mileage on the odometer, this car only ran the LCP race and that was it. This care was set up bi the famous Ford guru Bill Stroppe himself and is owned by Howard Singer of La Jolla California.
Car #107, a 1954 Lincoln Capri was driven by piloto Court Whitlock and Co-Piloto Charlie Weber. This car has had some customizing work done such as rear quarters extended 6 inches with 55 Packard taillights, Frenched antenna, 55 Olds headlight rims, moulded Continental kit, Frenched lake pipes, scooped quarters, recontoured fenders and quarters, 53 Lincoln bumpers which are narrowed 6 inches and then the car was lowered 6 inches. (Don't ask me why.) This car is owned by Rob and Deb Butler of Fort Wayne IN.
A special thanks to Don Grogg at NATMUS for taking the time to take these awesome photos and sending them to me and thank you to NATMUS and other orginizations as well as those who donate their cars so that they will be around for many future generations to enjoy.
One such arena is none other than the NATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE AND TRUCK MUSEUM OF THE UNITED STATES (NATMUS) which is located in Auburn Indiana. NATMUS is a non-profit museum with emphasis on post World War II cars and trucks but with vehicles on display from 1908 “high wheelers” to current production pick ups. Also you will find inside the doors of NATMUS a Model Car / Truck & Toy Museum (NATMATMUS).
Currently on display they have three wonderful cars that have competed in La Carrera Panamericana. There site says, "The three original La Carrera vehicles on display are believed to be the most currently on display in a single place in America." They may be right since the big display at Petersons Museum was only there for a short time.
Car #120, a 1954 Mercury Monterey, driven by Piloto Peter Frank and Co-Piloto Mark Williams ran three different LCP races (91, 91, 97) and won overall in 1992. It's interesting to point out Mark Williams is one of the most sought after co-drivers in North America. CLICK HERE FOR RESUME.
Built to compete in Turismo Mayor Class, beneath the stock bodywork you will find everything found in a NASCAR Nextel Cup car. During it's last race in 1997 the blueprinted 351 blew up during the race and was replaced with a 302 in a parking lot to finich the race. This car was donated to NATMUS by owner Dr Peter Frank of Bluffton, SC.
Seen here with 1992 overall trophy.
Car #313, a 1954 Ford, driven by Piloto Argentine team mate Americo Guzzini and Co-Piloto Bernardo Guzzini finished 77th overall in the 1954 LCP. Some interesting trivia was that because Argentineans led the roster with 74 cars compared to 47 Mexicans, 39 Americans, 9 Italians and 4 Germans. The number of Argentines was so high because President Juan Peron granted a special permit which exempted participants from paying standard import duties, so it was possible to import a large American car at a much lower cost if it had taken part in La Carrera Panamericana. Coincidentally the name PERON was painted on all of the Argentine cars to pay tribute to Eva Peron, the wife of the Argentine dictator who had recently died. According to the original mileage on the odometer, this car only ran the LCP race and that was it. This care was set up bi the famous Ford guru Bill Stroppe himself and is owned by Howard Singer of La Jolla California.
Car #107, a 1954 Lincoln Capri was driven by piloto Court Whitlock and Co-Piloto Charlie Weber. This car has had some customizing work done such as rear quarters extended 6 inches with 55 Packard taillights, Frenched antenna, 55 Olds headlight rims, moulded Continental kit, Frenched lake pipes, scooped quarters, recontoured fenders and quarters, 53 Lincoln bumpers which are narrowed 6 inches and then the car was lowered 6 inches. (Don't ask me why.) This car is owned by Rob and Deb Butler of Fort Wayne IN.
A special thanks to Don Grogg at NATMUS for taking the time to take these awesome photos and sending them to me and thank you to NATMUS and other orginizations as well as those who donate their cars so that they will be around for many future generations to enjoy.
Saturday, September 05, 2009
I Don't Have A Damn Clue What Their Saying But It's A Great LCP Video
What's great about a video of the 2008 LCP like this one is that it just goes to show that during an international race like La Carrera Panamericana you don't have to speak the same language to understand what a great time everyone is having.
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO
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